Jewel Cyprus & Greek Islands - going to happen?

[Guest BigRoger]

Just wondered about the thoughts of those booked for the Greek islands from Limassol Cyprus on Jewel…. Welcome views on:

 

- is it going to get pulled by RC (our view is unlikely unless it’s sold badly…?)

 

- will this cruise still work well for UK guests this summer? Contrary to the ‘ we are opening up international travel’ message when we booked this… the UK government seems very anti travel to Europe….? We are now assuming that it will be at best classed as Amber by the time we need to make final payment and we’ll probably CWC rather than pay for multiple PCR tests and quarantine at home…..

 

Is anyone cruising on the first sailing in July? Have you heard about any of the supporting arrangements (ex the flight times) from RC?

 

We are seriously considering jumping to Celebrity or MSC again because at least we have huge confidence (from experience) of how well Southampton is managing the supporting aspects…. But would be sad to lose the Greek islands this summer….

[Summer35]

I heard that more infos are given 30 days before cruise. I will wait for next week, but we are from Germany and I dont see much problems for us. We dont have to quaratine at home and untill now no PCR test required on the way home

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

Is anyone making final payments for July sailings on the Jewel. We are booked on the 31st July sailing and final payment due today. Thinking that I will call to cancel and get the deposit exchanged for a FCC. I cannot see U.K. Gov changing Cyprus from Amber to Green anytime soon given that yesterday they put Portugal into Amber. If Cyprus stays Amber I don’t think that I can put up with all the required testing pre and post cruise  ( and the not insignificant costs) plus quarantine on return . Might consider a U.K. staycation cruise.

[Guest BigRoger]

40 minutes ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

Is anyone making final payments for July sailings on the Jewel. We are booked on the 31st July sailing and final payment due today. Thinking that I will call to cancel and get the deposit exchanged for a FCC. I cannot see U.K. Gov changing Cyprus from Amber to Green anytime soon given that yesterday they put Portugal into Amber. If Cyprus stays Amber I don’t think that I can put up with all the required testing pre and post cruise  ( and the not insignificant costs) plus quarantine on return . Might consider a U.K. staycation cruise.

Yep that’s where we are although we have longer before we have to pay (a lot) our cash to settle the balance… interesting that all on Odyssey Israel have been offered big OBC to switch to Jewel and offer locally in Cyprus is also big OBC for next couple of weeks too…. Being heavily marketed in Russia too. (There was an interesting article about current situation in another post). They are doing some test sailings shortly…

 

Just can’t see this working for UK guests with chaos at airport, testing a real fear for us. TUI have their own full testing suite available to purchase but arC confirmed to me that they hadn’t done a deal with them to allow RC charter flight guests (on TUI planes) to use the TUI pack. This could be wrong of course as info is notoriously inaccurate but it’s what they said. (Which is why I asked if anyone had received any detailed info about first sailing…).

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

I have just called Royal regarding my 31st July Jewel cruise. They have extended final payment from today to 8th June ( !) . I suspect I will cancel this booking and get the deposit back as a FCC as cannot see that Cyprus is likely to be put on the green list. 

[nicben]

In my cruise planner 5 minutes ago have had 3 cruises on rhapsody cancelled but 31 July is a goer on jewel 

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

I suspect that Jewel will sail provided that bookings are of sufficient numbers but guess a lot of U.K. passengers will cancel under CWC due to the high degree of likelihood that Cyprus will remain an Amber country. I am 99% certain that I will be cancelling before 8th June ( my final payment date) and take my deposit as a FCC to use towards one of my Royal cruises next year.  Have done a L&S on our August Rhapsody cruise today to August 2022 on Brilliance. 

[Guest BigRoger]

7 hours ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

I suspect that Jewel will sail provided that bookings are of sufficient numbers but guess a lot of U.K. passengers will cancel under CWC due to the high degree of likelihood that Cyprus will remain an Amber country. I am 99% certain that I will be cancelling before 8th June ( my final payment date) and take my deposit as a FCC to use towards one of my Royal cruises next year.  Have done a L&S on our August Rhapsody cruise today to August 2022 on Brilliance. 

Yep we are much the same - we are going to Lift and shift our Rhapsody July cruise to 2022 and going to give UK government to end of June to see if Cyprus and Greece get into the green list… if not before final payment we will give up on Jewel…. (Even if they get on the list the problem is that they could have it green but change it while we are away or between final payment and sail date….)… horribly uncertain given clear intent that UK government want holiday money being spent in UK….

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

I have just used the online cancellation form to cancel our 31st July Jewel cruise as I suspect that Cyprus will remain Amber and cannot be doing with all the testing and minimum 5 day quarantine on return. Will use the FCC for one of our Royal cruises next year.

[Kbonner]

I do not understand why UK-Boris has categorized Cyprus only AMBER. Here it is officially categorized RED. Testing hurdles and quarantine procedures  for all non vaxxed-, for vaxxed EU citizen no entry restrictions. Would I mix with Sputnik-country cruisers on Jewel? No I would not at present.

[Guest BigRoger]

Yep we finally got fed up with mistrusting Bozo and that chocolate tea pot shapps….. we threw in the towel on Jewel for Cyprus as we decided we just can’t trust that the UK government wouldn’t move the goal posts even if Cyprus was put on the green list…. Its clear they do not want people travelling abroad…

 

So whilst it went against the grain, and economically is exactly what they are trying to achieve, we booked Anthem instead…. It’s another UK only cruise but we love being on the ships anyway so after so long starved of shows, great service and the sea we will at least get some of that….

[little britain]

Apparently bookings on Jewel are very slow; they had tons of cancellations when Cyprus was put on Amber list. This info was from someone very senior onboard. 
 

I am not feeling confident they will go ahead. 

[3kidsncats]

They are staffing the ship — a friend is on board finishing her quarantine soon.  She was flown in from her home in California, so presume the intent is that the cruises will sail, unless he situation in Cyprus gets really bad.

[bigeck]

I made final payment yesterday for my Anthem 7th Aug cruise. I also applied a fcc to my Anthem 15th Aug cruise. Protocols have changed so much in the last few weeks. 

The jungle drums are banging all over social media it's unreal.

As for Jewel, if we get tested on the plane then tested before we board, I can't see they have a reason to cancel.

I'm on 25th Sept and 23rd Oct. I'm optimistic and hopeful

[bigeck]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

Apparently bookings on Jewel are very slow; they had tons of cancellations when Cyprus was put on Amber list. This info was from someone very senior onboard. 
 

I am not feeling confident they will go ahead. 

Price of GS is almost the same as a JS

[Guest BigRoger]

27 minutes ago, bigeck said:

Price of GS is almost the same as a JS

We know…. We have released 1600 twice after making the initial two bookings…. For the difference in price it was worth it….
 

But we can’t risk the implications… we are certain the cruise itself will go whether occupied by brits, Israelis, Russians or Cypriots or combination of all but the risk and cost of Amber is too big (for us)…. And if it went red…. 

[bigeck]

7 hours ago, BigRoger said:

We know…. We have released 1600 twice after making the initial two bookings…. For the difference in price it was worth it….
 

But we can’t risk the implications… we are certain the cruise itself will go whether occupied by brits, Israelis, Russians or Cypriots or combination of all but the risk and cost of Amber is too big (for us)…. And if it went red…. 

1600 is gone on my ones but I have 1100 on both

[Daized]

So, sadly I've asked my TA to cancel under CWC - just can't hang around any more,  and with Cyprus n Islands still on Amber for the UK, we decided to jump ship. Pun intended. 

 

My next booked cruise is end of October and I'm still hopeful things will be moving by then.  Have a lovely cruise and sorry i won't be meeting you all xxx Daisy xxx

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

I received my cancellation invoice today following my cancellation at the beginning of the week. Anyone know how long it will be before I receive a FCC certificate.

[Guest BigRoger]

47 minutes ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

I received my cancellation invoice today following my cancellation at the beginning of the week. Anyone know how long it will be before I receive a FCC certificate.

They said to us up to 14 working days…. Strange length of time…. Either they meant 2 weeks or assume within 3 weeks…. In the next breath they said it may be sooner…. Or longer 

 

Go figure…… also after we cancelled we got 3 emails congratulating us on having booked the sailing……………..

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

11 hours ago, BigRoger said:

They said to us up to 14 working days…. Strange length of time…. Either they meant 2 weeks or assume within 3 weeks…. In the next breath they said it may be sooner…. Or longer 

 

Go figure…… also after we cancelled we got 3 emails congratulating us on having booked the sailing……………..

I also keep getting e mails offering me drinks and dining packages on my cancelled cruise. When I booked in April it was in the hope that by now we would be looking at U.K. Gov categorising Med Islands as green. So instead of a 7 night Med cruise we are now booked on a 4 night P and O South coast cruise to nowhere - praying for good weather 😄

[sgmn]

36 minutes ago, HalifaxYorksCruiser said:

I also keep getting e mails offering me drinks and dining packages on my cancelled cruise. When I booked in April it was in the hope that by now we would be looking at U.K. Gov categorising Med Islands as green. So instead of a 7 night Med cruise we are now booked on a 4 night P and O South coast cruise to nowhere - praying for good weather 😄

I think it was a good bet in April, things were looking so good for the Summer. Then along came the Delta variant and we didn't react quick enough and so rates started rising. Not looking good for travel to be relaxed at least for another month or so. 

[dani negreanu]

1 hour ago, sgmn said:

Not looking good for travel to be relaxed at least for another month or so. 

 

👎 😢

[little britain]

Updated health protocols

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/gbr/en/healthy-sail-center/getting-ready-to-cruise?country=GBR

 

 

 All guests 6 years and older must wear a mask in all indoor and outdoor public spaces, unless seated and actively eating or drinking or sitting beside the pool. Masks are not required in your stateroom as long as you are with your own travel party. Masks are not permitted in the pool or for any activity where they could become wet.

[Guest BigRoger]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

Updated health protocols

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/gbr/en/healthy-sail-center/getting-ready-to-cruise?country=GBR

 

 

 All guests 6 years and older must wear a mask in all indoor and outdoor public spaces, unless seated and actively eating or drinking or sitting beside the pool. Masks are not required in your stateroom as long as you are with your own travel party. Masks are not permitted in the pool or for any activity where they could become wet.

Yep suspect same will apply for Anthem too…..